The bowling alley located at 730 Osborne is currently being renovated and is scheduled for a grand reopening later this month.

According to new owner Mike Devenney, it’s a bowling alley with a long history.

"Park Alley has been a part of the Osborne area since at least the 1920s," Devenney said. "I didn’t want to see it die. It’s been a mainstay. I wanted to bring it back to being a bowling centre again."

Devenney, who also owns St. James Lanes on Portage Avenue, says the game of bowling has changed drastically since those early days at Park Alleys.

"It used to be all league, league, league and we want to make it more family-oriented and include public events too," Devenney said. "Don’t get me wrong, our leagues are one of the most important things we do, but we need to change things to bring it up to the times. I have two daughters that are getting ready to get into the business so this is the perfect stage for us."

Bringing the bowling alley up to date has included some major renovations. These include installing a new air conditioning system, 32-inch flat screen TVs and bumpers for bumper bowling to name only a handful of the renovations being done. The grand reopening will also see the establishment offering a new hot foods menu item too.

"They had nothing really here for food before," Devenney said. "We’ll have pizza, chicken fingers, and wings in the new menu. We wanted to make it a full meal deal. This way you can come on out and have a pizza while you bowl. We want to make it open for everything."

Devenney said Park Alleys will also be available for anyone looking to use their space to host events as well.

"This is a great location to do your private little parties," said Devenney. "You’ve got your eight lanes and it’s good for 40 to 50 people. It’s a perfect size for that."

The new space will offer some new services and programs too.

"We’re going to focus on the youth groups," Devenney said. "They weren’t being supplied before and we want to get the kids more involved. We will also be hosting a bunch of corporate events coming up in support of different charities. We want to do things that encourage the community to come out."

Being an active member in the community is very important to Devenney.

"Bowling does a lot of these things I’ve mentioned, but you never really hear about them. That’s what we’re hoping to achieve once we get this place more on the map. We want Park Alleys to have that home-like feel. We’re a family business. What we want to say to people is, ‘Hey, come join our family.’"

You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments.
All you need to do is be a Winnipeg Free Press print or e-edition subscriber to join the conversation and give your feedback.